unionization and charges

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 10:56 AM 02-21-98 -0500, Andrew Nelson wrote:

>We cannot deal effectively with certification if we have no personnel to
>certify.  There must be greater recognition of the need to train
>students to carefully and reliably identify organisms in the field,
>laboratory and museum setting, to document their work, and to know when
>to consult specialists in critical groups.

The matter is one of economics.  If there were good-paying positions
available to do this sort of work, you would have more than enough bright
students being trained and trained well.  As long as identifying specimens
is not considered all that important, we'll have to limp along as best we can.


Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
voice mail: 312-922-9410 ext. 317
fax:                312-427-2530
http:    www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_lammers.htm

*******************************************************************
"There are no uninteresting things;
 there are only uninterested people."
                                  -- G. K. Chesterton